Piecing Me Together

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing introduces bright, artistic, confused and endearing Jade as she navigates the multiple milieu of her teenage life. Living in a primarily black and poor neighborhood, Jade attends a fancy prep school. There, both her race and her poverty lead to alienation, until she meets Sam, a white girl who lives in an adjacent working-poor neighborhood. Together they travel the bus back and forth to school. But Sam doesn’t understand the small and large ways Jade faces racial oppression. Jade’s mentor Maxine, an upper middle class African American who attended the same prep school, understands racism, but is blind to her own condescension concerning class. This contemporary, realistic novel models how to interact with imperfect people, to build bridges as one evolves, and to do so in a world circumscribed by racism and classism.